A note on Develop has further indications that Battlefield 3 will not be released through Steam, as speculation mounts that DICE's military shooter sequel will not appear on Valve's download service. They quote a comment from a report from financial research firm Baird based on a meeting with GameStop: "The upcoming EA title Battlefield 3 will be sold as a download through GameStop, but not through Steam," Baird says GameStop executives told them. "Given Steam's dominance – and insistence on users downloading a Steam client application – publishers are likely to be receptive to a competitive alternative." Thanks Computer and Video Games.

vrok wrote on Jul 18, 2011, 20:37:I quoted you mainly to wish you luck with your buying practices considering what the future holds. I guess I could've made them different paragraphs to make it more clear though. No frothing hatred, my distaste for Steam is sadly entirely rational.

I am a gamer and probably always will be; if for some reason Steam becomes a second-tier service that doesn't host the greatest games or even goes away entirely, then naturally I'll evolve. Right now, I'm perfectly content with Steam, and am also perfectly content in the understanding that not everyone is. All I ask is a choice, and EA seems to be removing that in this case.

Um you can still buy it from other places just not your precious Steam. Just saying.